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NWSL Power Rankings - Week 23

Ranks remain status quo.

By Kreg Asay
NWSL Power Rankings

There were 6 games during week 23, but by now the patterns are pretty well established. There are no changes from last week.

I do rankings for both NWSL and MLS a little differently; typically in soccer leagues within the USA, the home team wins more than 50% of the time. Thus I rank any team deviates from the ‘normal’ higher - basically an away team winning will move higher than a home team winning. The same applies for ties - a home team drawing will likely cause them to drop because it’s not what was expected of them.

So without further mindless banter, here’s the power rankings for this week. (#) indicates last week’s ranking.

  1. North Carolina Courage (1) - Lost to the Spirit, but at this point their lead is insurmountable.
  2. Chicago Red Stars (2) - Needed a very late goal to beat the Royals at home.
  3. Portland Thorns (3) - Fell to the Reign on the road, they have one game remaining to remain in 3rd.
  4. Reign FC (4) - Beat the Thorns at home, and have a chance to move into 3rd place.
  5. Utah Royals (5) - Pressured the Red Stars until the closing minutes before conceding the goal that put the playoffs out of reach.
  6. Washington Spirit (6) - Scoreless draw in Houston, then Beat the Courage at home with two late goals.
  7. Houston Dash (7) - Failed to score at home vs the Spirit, but the teams below fared no better.
  8. Sky Blue FC (8) - Tied Orlando at home.
  9. Orlando Pride (9) - Visited New Jersey for a game, came out with a point.

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